This week I have been doing a lot of reflecting. Reflecting on how I got to where I am. How I’ve improved as a person but also someone going into the media industry.

You know how we all have those dream jobs that we think we can never have. But if you think about it, other people have the jobs we think are so out of reach. So why can’t you too?

I got here to where I am from a video I saw on Twitter. It was this girl giving a speech on why she was in a Public Relations program at school. It was all because of five boys in a band called One Direction. She loved the band so much, that she wanted to work in that business. And that’s when I started looking into PR and media programs. I wanted to work for Taylor Swift. I was looking, that’s when I stumbled on the BCIT Radio Arts and Entertainment Program. I knew right away that it was the perfect program for me. A day later I told my mom I was dropping out of Criminology at UFV and going to BCIT in September and she was excited for me. Now, after my two years here in Radio Arts, has my dream job shifted? Oh it has, but I will always know that I got into this program because of a girl from Nashville who told always told me to be Fearless. Now the dream is to be Cheryl Hickey. I want to be the host of Entertainment Tonight Canada. How fun would that be? Talking celebrity gossip all day. Sign me right up!

It’s starting to hit me that I’m in my last day for BCIT’s Radio Arts & Entertainment program. It’a been quite the ride but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve made amazing friends and even better memories. I look back on these two years fondly.

I remember the first day of school sitting next to Jocelyn and a room full of 40 unknown faces but little did I know they would become my friends. Victoria and I kicked it off and became friends right away.

Photos for Online Design with Victoria

Sadly, there was only a semester and a half with my classmates in person so our time going to the Habitat between classes or grabbing a coffee from Tim’s got cut short.

Stress in a nutshell in Heidi’s class

I drew pictures on the white board during OB in Heidi’s class. That was always a highlight of my Thursday’s.

I’m going to miss digging deeper in Rachael’s class. She  was the one who pushed me the most. I will forever be thankful for Business Communications. I also vividly remember spitting beer across her class room on Vanessa (accidentally) during Aidan and I’s CBC presentation. It was humiliating. I’m pretty sure you could see my paper full of notes shaking in my hands from space. After an apology email, Rachael forgave me for the ruckus I caused that class.

Shooting with Ashley

I remember the chaos of learning to shoot in Adnan’s class. It was a bunch of radio students out in the wild. if you forgot your SD card, go home (if you know, you know).

Moving to zoom, I thought the class how to make Margarita’s on break in Journalism 2. This was the time when we thought we would only be online for a few weeks. Although we haven’t been in a classroom all together for a year, there have still been many fun times we have got to share through a screen. I’m going to miss being completely out of ideas for articles. The Red Chairs Club- I will miss you guys. I’m even going to miss Uncle Phil and his constant rude comments to me. Secretly he thinks I’m really cool.

I’m going to say this only once. They’ve been pretty good, and easy to promote on air, so thank you.

— Phil Figueiredo (@philfigs) April 7, 2021

I will not miss is downward dog from yoga class, unfortunately.

One of the saddest parts is that Reckless Lives is coming to an end…for now. Mattia and I had way too much fun talking reality TV and pop culture. Having to watch Real Housewives and Summer House for was the best homework I have ever had. We turned it into something exciting by going out and filming things in Vancouver.

Reckless Live

And this is my sign off. If you heard me hosting on Evolution, this is when I cue Closing Time By Semisonic.

So thank you BCIT Radio Arts & Entertainment for teaching me many lessons but also giving me some pretty awesome memories that I’ll cherish forever. 

This is just a little PSA to all the Karen’s out there. I have worked in the hospitality industry throughout COVID. I work at a brewery and I’m shocked still at how there are so many people that do not follow any rules after a year of being in this. The one way traffic, the masks, avoiding walking past people and keeping a 6 feet distance between other people all kind of seem natural now to most but a lot haven’t adapted. I mean, thats great, I don’t want to adapt to this but we do have rules we need to follow in order to stay open.

During the summer, I had a broken ankle and tore all the ligaments so carrying a tray was out for me. That meant I was stuck on the host stand all Summer and now it has basically become my home. I like it because once I seat people, I don’t have to deal with them anymore like the servers. Not only do I seat people, I also have to go over the rules inside. Here is my spiel “It’s all table service so someone will be taking your order, if you have to go inside for anything we have “bird arrows”, it’s all one way traffic so just follow the birds and if you see anyone else you know just stay seated and wave from afar. Enjoy”

By the time I get to the arrows, no one is listening anymore. Which they should because the amount of people we have to continuously tell to change the direction they are walking probably happens every five minutes.

I also have to control the line up and make sure every group is six feet from the other. We have markings on the ground so you would think it would be easy. It’s not. People are oblivious. I have to constantly tell people to back up and not breathe down the group in front necks.

Jumping tables is something that I don’t usually deal with being outside at the host stand but when I do, it’s a nightmare. People don’t care. They will continue to do it after you ask them three times to go back to their own table. Then, after you tell people multiple times to not jump tables, they get mad at us. I’m sorry, but it’s not me that has made these rules, IT’S THE GOVERNMENT. And then they think you take your job too seriously but we can get shut down and all lose our jobs if we aren’t following the rules.

A bit of a rant, yes, but also why are you coming into an establishment if you aren’t going to follow the rules and better yet, making a fuss about it. Karen stay home!

I’ve come to the realization that I’m lacking a few life skills that i think I should have or at least know what to do. My dad has always been the one that takes care of it when I’m having car troubles, clog a sink or maybe accidentally light something on fire. But now I’m 21 and my dad isn’t always there when something goes wrong.

Yesterday, I left the dentist and there was a light on in my car. Having no idea what any of the lights mean, I just kept driving…until a song ended and I heard this loud banging coming from the back passenger side. My first thought was turn the music up louder. So I did. But then I got nervous. I went through the car manual at a red light and I saw that the low tire symbol was the same one that was lit up on my dash. Now this is where I could just go home and say to my dad “I think I have a flat tire,” but I was concerned that the tire was going to blow up and I was going to explode. So I decided I did not want to die and I would attempt to fill my tire up with air myself. It was about five minutes before I found a gas station. I pulled up at the “air” station and got out of the car like I knew exactly what I was doing… I didn’t. I’ve never done this before. I took the cap off the air valve and put it in my pocket so I didn’t lose it. I knew I would get in trouble if I lost it.

Now it’s air in the tire time. I grabbed the pump and put it to the air valve. Then I held the handle down and nothing was happening. But I thought “I guess this is how it works.” Three minutes later I realized that I’m an idiot and didn’t press the button to turn the air on. Nice move, Ry. I turn the air on and put everything back in place for filling. I held the handle down for about 20 seconds. I honestly have no idea if air even made it into the tire or if I let more air out. But I decided that I gave it a good shot and drove fifteen more minutes home. I called my dad to tell him what I did. I could feel him shaking his head over the phone as he said “be careful and drive home slowly.”

I did in fact make it home if you’re worried that I blew up. When I parked, I heard air sizzling out. I got down and saw that there was a huge nail suck in the tire. My dad came down to look and he stuck the nail in a little more so it would stop the air coming out for the night as it was 7pm and everywhere was closed.

Nail in tire

This morning, my dad took my car to get the tire patched as I profusely refused as those are boy things and as a girl I didn’t feel like getting dirty.

So what I learned out of this, is that everyone should know how to put air in their tire, add oil and know how to unplug a toilet. Not that I ever want to do any of these things, I should know how just in case my dad isn’t there. When I was in Kelowna and my dad was not there, a family friend (thank god he was there), showed me how to add oil to my car. Do i remember? Kinda sorta yes. I’d also like to know how to do my taxes so I don’t go to jail but I’ll learn that another time.

Being single in a pandemic is has it’s ups and it’s downs. I don’t have to hang out with someone 24/7. Oh man, I’m not sure if I could do that. that scares me about marriage. Having to spend everyday together. I fell like I would be bored. Anyways, I’m no where close to being married so that doesn’t matter right now.

But boys, listen up here. Having an empty bio? Boring. Write a little bit about yourself. All I know about you then is that you take gym mirror selfies, drink bud light and have hiked to the top of a mountain. Great, you seem so interesting… not.

Since we are on the bio topic, I would like to let you know the worst thing that is put in the bios. Anything about The Office. Being able to quote every line from The Office is not a personality trait. In what world did you think oh, I’m going to put the Office quotes in your bio? First of all, I hate The Office so that’s a huge turn off. It’s not funny. It’s basic humour. I have a much more complex sense of humour, so no thank you.

A list of vague dating app bios that have me convinced that aliens walk among us:
"I like to travel"
"Make me laugh"
"Food is my favorite"
AND pic.twitter.com/IdzfmST509

— Nik Kennedy (@ThatsFunnyNik) March 28, 2021

Another thing that a dude should not do, is put a picture of themselves holding a fish that they caught. We get it, your friend invited you out fishing once and your proud of what you caught. But I’ll tell you one thing, you’re not going to catch me and many other ladies out there. This also makes a gal think, “hmm maybe he will want to be out in a swamp fishing on the weekend instead of on a rooftop patio having margaritas.” Instant swipe left.

I click his tinder profile. it's him smoking a cigar at graduation. it's him holding up a fish. his bio says "6 ft." I swipe left. repeat

— liv (@eggs_anonymous) June 4, 2017

Now let’s talk about photos with friends. Don’t have multiple picture with the same friend. Half the time we will be thinking it’s you. I had this problem just yesterday and I’m still annoyed by it. If you have a better looking friend or the friend is just someone else’s type, there is a higher chance you’re going to have more matches. Once we find out which one you are, 50/50 chance of an unmatch. Just post photos of you, or maybe just one with a friend so we can see that you are semi social.

And one thing that is even worse than photos with friends, is a photo with you and another girl. Is she your sister? A previous girlfriend? A current girlfriend? Or a friend? Now we are wondering if we would have to be concerned about this girl. Big mistake. Just leave other people out of it… unless it is you and your parents. I like seeing those to get a sense that family is important to you. So keep the family pictures up but any other people should not be in your photos.

So, all you men out there, I hope you read this articles very carefully. Maybe, go back and read it twice or three times? I think it’ll help you find your cinderella a lot faster. And don’t worry, a follow up article about your conversation starts and inappropriate comments will be next.

Love,

Your single girls

The sun is out, birds are chirping and you know what that means. Ball season is right around the corner. This year is looking a little different for me. I’ve hung up my cleats and I’m picking up a clip board. I’m coaching a group of U8 girls. I was asked by a family friend to come out and be her assistant coach for her daughter’s team. I thought about it for about five minutes and I knew I was in.

My main position was catcher and when I wasn’t in foul territory, I was in left field. I thought great, I will be in charge of catchers and outfield and Ashley would do infield and pitchers. I immediately started brainstorming drills that made me be the player I am today. I had two come to mind right away. Very repetitive drills but so beneficial. I remember hating doing them over and over for a two hour practice but when it came to game time, it was worth it. But then I remembered that I’m coaching eight year olds and concentration is out the window.

I also need to figure out what kind of coach I’m going to be. I’ve had a lot of different coaches in my 14 years of minor ball. I’ve had the motivational and uplifting, the serious, the ones that only teach mechanics and the one who made me want to never pick up a glove again. I know I will never be the one who will make players want to quit the game.

Catching in Lake Tahoe

I have coached hockey since I was sixteen but I find the two are completely different. At hockey, I’ve always been the fun coach and the one’s the kids pick on. Softball is a sport that I take a lot more seriously. I think it’s from playing at a much higher level than I did at hockey. I know the game of ball like the back of my hand. From the mechanics to knowing exactly what I’m doing when the ball comes to me to figuring out the perfect pitch to call and everything in between. It’s engrained in me. Any player that has played ball at a high level will know, that it’s more of a mental game than a physical. Not only have I been trained on the field, I’ve also been trained off and I’m used to a few things that I think I will have to let go of.

1. No parents at practice
2. Jerseys always tucked in
3. Athletic position at all times
4. No sitting
5. No food (other than energy bar or something beneficial)

But this team is not a rep team so I’m going to have to wrap my head around those things happening. You’d think from playing women’s league now for a few years, I would be over all that but I’m not. My first game I played, there was a girl who was on deck and where did she go? She heard her name at the concession stand and went to grab her food. She ended up not being back in time and caused an “out” for us. I was absolutely horrified. My mom saw the look on my face and she said she knew I was having a small freak out inside.

Last game of minor ball

Something that I will make sure is a rule, is that everyone’s jerseys are tucked in. That’s professional. I see it that if you can’t care enough to tuck your jersey then you don’t care enough to play.

So next week, Coach Rylee makes her debut as a softball coach and it’s safe to say I’m a littler nervous. So if any fellow ball coaches want to throw over a bit of advice, I’m all ears for it.